Blizzard Pushes Out Diablo III Release Date Until 2012

Blizzard Entertainment said that the company's planned release date for its Diablo III game "will be moving in early 2012," implying a delay.

Blizzard Entertainment said that the company's planned release date for its Diablo III game "will be moving in early 2012," implying a delay.

Blizzard has never indicated when its action role-playing game, which just entered a closed beta, would ever ship, making characterizations of a delay a bit tenuous.

But the company said that it would use "the additional time" to extend the Diablo III beta test, "potentially adding more testers than initially projected". Blizzard also used the language "Despite a sterling record of always hitting its release targets" to introduce the release date.

That's good news for those who couldn't get into the original beta.

Players who have an active Battle.net account with any Blizzard game attached to it should visit Battle.net account management to opt in for a chance to participate in the beta test, Blizzard said. Additional testing phases, as well as further details regarding the launch plans for the game, will be announced on the company's Diablo III community site, Diablo3.com.

"With every game we make, the temptation is always very strong to launch as soon as possible," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment, in a statement Friday. "However, we didn't put so many years of work into Diablo III to release a game that was almost ready."

"With every game we make, the temptation is always very strong to launch as soon as possible," Morhaime added. "However, we didn't put so many years of work into Diablo III to release a game that was almost ready," "The beta test is going very well, and we look forward to making the most of the extra time we're taking to deliver an experience that lives up to our vision for the game and the expectations of our players. Next year is going to be an incredibly busy one for Blizzard, and we hope an incredibly fun one for Blizzard gamers."

In the Diablo III closed beta test, participants will be able to fight their way through part of Act I as any of the five hero classes -- barbarian, witch doctor, wizard, monk, and demon hunter -- and go head-to-skull against the Skeleton King, taking him on alone or playing cooperatively with other adventurers, Blizzard said. They'll also get to meet up with some of the artisans, followers, and other key characters from Sanctuary, and try out the game's skill and crafting systems.

Gamers have waited more than two years since the original announcement of Diablo III, the followon to the immensely popular Diablo II, which debuted in 2001. Blizzard has not even hinted at a release date for Diablo III, so the release of the beta is a minor invitation of sorts.

For Blizzard, the beta is an opportunity to test out features of the game, let users find undiscovered bugs, and examine how users approach the game to balance its features and challenges before the game is released.

Blizzard has previously said that the in-game auction house would be live with the beta. Blizzard has said that it will offer two versions of the auction house within the game, one where users can buy and sell items using in-game virtual currency. The other version will use actual U.S. currency. The beta will also only be in U.S. English, although the final version of the game will be released in several languages.

Want to see what all the fuss is about? Watch the beta B-roll footage below.

Mark Hachman Mark joined ExtremeTech in 2001 as the news editor, after rival CMP/United Media decided at the time that online news did not make sense in the new millennium.
Mark stumbled into his career after discovering that writing the great American novel did not pay a monthly salary, and that his other possible career choice, physics, required a degree of mathematical prowess that he sorely lacked.
Mark talked his way into a freelance assignment at CMP’s Electronic Buyers’ News, in 1995, where he wrote the...
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